Compliance Stuff

In another major shift for workplaces, President Trump issued an executive order yesterday with huge implications for employment discrimination claims. For decades, employers could face liability for policies and practices that didn’t intentionally discriminate but had a “disparate impact” on a group of job applicants or employees based on a protected characteristic, such as race or sex. The president is now aiming “to eliminate the use of disparate impact liability in all contexts to the maximum degree possible.” Although courts nationwide apply the disparate impact theory of liability in employment discrimination claims – and the law hasn’t changed yet – we expect federal agencies to immediately halt related enforcement activities and take steps to influence broader reform. Here’s what employers need to know about this development and how it may impact your practices.  Understanding Discrimination Claims Disparate Treatment:  As you likely know, employers cannot intentional...

  The Policy Week in Review, prepared by Littler’s Workplace Policy Institute (WPI), sets forth WPI’s updates on federal, state, and local matters, as well as Littler’s published in-depth analyses of the prior week. Congressional and Administrative News Pro-Union Legislation Introduced Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) introduced the  Faster Labor Contract Act , which would speed up the collective bargaining process by requiring employers to begin negotiating with the union within 10 days after workers vote to form a union, and then impose a 90-day timeframe to reach a contract . If no agreement were reached, the dispute would go to mediation.  If mediation were to fail within 30 days, the dispute would be referred to a three-person arbitration panel, which would settle the dispute and render a binding contract on the parties for two years. This legislation follows Hawley’s labor reform  framework  released earlier this year. Regardless of the number of days it ta...